On the cusp of his second anniversary in office on May 20th, President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) is a busy man.
One project he has been working on is a photo book which, according to the preface, is designed to "unveil to the public the mysterious side of the Presidential Office."
The book is entitled President A-bian: Up Close and Personal " and will be released today.
"Through this presentation of photos, the president wants to give people a closer look at what goes on behind the scenes in this majestic building," the preface of the book explains.
In addition to the book, Chen graces the cover of Newsweek's latest edition, which hits the newsstands today.
The book is a collection of 210 black-and-white photos of the president since the day he ascended to the presidency.
The 15-chapter album includes some of the president's most historic moments, such as the day of his election as the nation's president and the day he returned to his hometown of Kuantian, Tainan County as head of state.
There are also entries on the day his daughter's marriage, his first military-base inspection, his first look inside a submarine and the day he rode a bicycle to work to promote a greener lifestyle.
"This book is to give people a snapshot of the daily life of the president. You shouldn't have to wait until a president's death to know what its like inside the Presidential Office," the book says.
Chen said last week that the album gives him an opportunity to record his feelings and thoughts after two years in office.
Chen recounts in the book how, over the past two years, he has sought to visit people in every part of the nation and has "shaken their hands and felt their vitality and creativity."
"The photos show the many sides of Taiwan. The main characters are the people. I am merely an actor as well as an audience," said the president.
Prior to May 20, the president is slated to announce the establishment of the National Museum of Human Rights.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching